13 gallons of unintentionally wild Brown, can I use it?.

artyboy said:

This thread is awesome. I've been wanting to play around with some wild brews but I have a tendency to get mold instead of yeast when I try. I hope this batch turns out. Hopefully, I'll get lucky soon and get something that I can actually work with.

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I'm not sure obout the original wild yeast, I'm certain the rock cellar I use has all manner of wild things in it (including newts). if you don't have such a "place" you could always just pitch some dregs? I'm pretty sure you'll want to keep it cool also, this helps keep some mold at bay I think.

Keep on brewing my friends

Fellow brewers, an update on this sour brew.
I pulled samples again to see what it's doing and to decide what the next step is. Both kegs are at ~1.020 so it's obviously still going, dropped .006 in 2 months and it is turning more tart than sour the peach flavor has receded to the finish (It becomes more apparent after it breaths a while) and it still has a nice musty/peachy aroma. The maltiness is starting to fade to the background so I'm fairly certain I'm going to want to blend this with something when it's done.

Here's a photo wth the sun behind it.


Gravity shot.


Normal photo, you can see the bits of pelical floating.


I believe I want to re-combine both kegs, then use the empty one to start more of this, each keg still has an oak spiral dowel in them, I really can't tell any influence from the oak as far as flavor, is there anything wrong with leaving the oak in for the duration?

I guess I should remove the trub after I empty the one keg then after the new batch primary fermentation I can replace the oak dowel to hopefully re-introduce the same bugs, or should I simply put the dowel in when I start it? This is what I'm leaning towards.

One of the reasons I want to combine them now is that the peaches are in season again and I really like what it's giving me and I'd like to get another batch going.

I will also probably use my juniper yeast for the initial sacc. fermentation also.

Any thoughts are welcome.

First picture is amazing.

Well it's been about 3.5 months since anything on this, I tested it and it was down to 1.012 for a couple weeks so I decided to bottle. It is going to be a great beer, really complex sour maltiness coupled with old peach layered with a smoky finish.

Ended up bottling about 14 gallons total, I kept both seperate labeling them lambic 1 and lambic 2, I primed them with appx. 2/3 cup sucrose per 5 gallons, here are some pics:


Was able to scrape up enough bottles for some corking also:


Now just need to speed up time to the year 2013 maybe so I can try some.

I saved the trub from one of the sanke and added some already infected pumpkin wheat, it was also infected with the wild yeast from the cellar, here's that thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/my-beer-infected-pic-199206/

I placed both the oak spirals in it with the new addition and will be feeding it in the future.

Keep on brewing my friends

It's awesome, even at the low carbonation state it is at. It is over the top sour, thick, rich, malty, roasty, peachy, hint of vanilla, very complex. I'm putting it in the local fair competition this week, we'll see what others have to say, I doubt they've tasted anything like this, ever.



It's like heaven I'm so very glad I kept this going in the cellar, I should be able to bottle more next year.

Looks great! Send me a bottle

tasq said:

Looks great! Send me a bottle

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We could make a special trade What do you have?

Exactly what I was thinking ^^ I have never really enjoyed sour beers, but I have been giving it a shot. It is more the $5 for 12 oz of something I havn't grown a full appriciation for that is holding my back from really sampling the market.

Wish I was out your way to sample some!

congrats! i'm just now breaking into my first really experimental beer and i'm a little dissapointed with it. i really should have fed the bugs some more.

Actually, are there any commercial beers you want from the east coast that I could trade? My recent moves have caused me to just now be getting my pipeline back up and running

Germelli1 said:

Exactly what I was thinking ^^ I have never really enjoyed sour beers, but I have been giving it a shot. It is more the $5 for 12 oz of something I havn't grown a full appriciation for that is holding my back from really sampling the market.

Wish I was out your way to sample some!

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$5 for a sour sounds like a good deal. that's one morning's coffee. i can't seem to find much of anything at my local shops.

COLObrewer said:

We could make a special trade What do you have?

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All of my sours are too young currently. I'm afraid I wouldn't have anything comparable to offer at this time. My oldest is a 7 month old Flanders red, that tastes great, but still is lacking the sour punch I'm after.

Germelli1 said:

Actually, are there any commercial beers you want from the east coast that I could trade? My recent moves have caused me to just now be getting my pipeline back up and running

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Hmmm, dunno, what do they have over there that I can't get?

tasq said:

All of my sours are too young currently. I'm afraid I wouldn't have anything comparable to offer at this time. My oldest is a 7 month old Flanders red, that tastes great, but still is lacking the sour punch I'm after.

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This is still pretty young in my opinion also, needs more time to carb.

awesome colo! i have a belgian pale ale that got a nasty infection and even though i brew sours, i'm going to try to make this one drinkable. mine's got a nasty acetone ethyl acetate aroma/taste... not sure how volatile that stuff is so i have no idea how much of it will just breathe off...

I just read this thread for the first time, and wow!! That is one happy ending. Good job.

Here is my 3 year old sour that I pitched dregs from Jolly Pumpkin LaRoja into. I have been running the culture in solera fashion since may 09, and this was almost a year old when I bottled it. We could do a bottle swap if interested. Denny had some last year at the NHC and he said there was too much going on in it, and Kai wasn't sure what to think. I don't think they are sour beer lovers though.
On top of that, I have a kegged sour eisbier that is over the top sour. When I iced it the flavors got real concentrated. I could send you one of those too if you wanted to get a little crazy.

Brother COLO, I forgot about this thread, and went back to the beginning. Boy you were such a noob back then, but look how far you have come!!!

That beer looks awesome, hard to believe it came from such an ugly looking mess.

Here's an update after the local fair, not sure two of the judges knew what was happening with it or didn't have sour beer experience. Also there wasn't a specific sour category, it had to go in the Belgian/Strong category. I expected the lack of carbonation to be a problem and it was. Score ended up at 22.7avg. The scoresheets follow:







The funny thing about this competition is that I put in a Heather ale that had soured in the bottle as a lambic and it won second place in the Fruit/Veggie/Spice category with a score of 43.3, I believe in this case it's all in who is judging what, they were different judges.

Ah well, this beer will be better next year and in my opinion is GREAT right now. I would like to place it in a more "professional" competition, I'll probably wait for the proper amount of carbonation however.

Score sheets like that reinforce why I don't bother with competitions.

IffyG said:

Score sheets like that reinforce why I don't bother with competitions.

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Yea, quite a spread between them, like I said it's a local competition, I think the total entries were 48 or so. They ribbon anything above 30 points I believe, anyway it was fun and I got some free beer as I helped with the cover sheets and totalling, etc, a couple of the brews were quite bad though.

it's funny you mention that - i've been thinking of submitting some of my beers, but i don't make very many true to style beers - most would get destroyed in competition.

COLObrewer said:

Yea, quite a spread between them, like I said it's a local competition, I think the total entries were 48 or so. They ribbon anything above 30 points I believe, anyway it was fun and I got some free beer as I helped with the cover sheets and totalling, etc, a couple of the brews were quite bad though.

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Participating in a comp can be fun. I helped with a non-BJCP sanctioned but judged on BJCP guidelines comp at the brewery I intern with. There was some damn good beers, and there were some beers that were bottled butter popcorn.

Fellow brewers, I thought I'd update this since the beer has been bottled for a while now, I sent it through the local fair again and here are the new scoresheets: (It missed the best of show by less than one point)




And a recent picture:


I think it's time to send off some to a "real" competition (probably here: http://bigbeersfestival.com/ ), I have two versions of this, One was removed from the fruit early and I will enter it in the Oud Bruin category. The other was left on the fruit and I will enter it in the fruit beer category.

This mistake was the best beer I have ever brewed. Carbonation is perfect, could use a little more head but who couldn't?

those scoresheets are shamefully filled out. I'm embarrassed for those judges.

mors said:

those scoresheets are shamefully filled out. I'm embarrassed for those judges.

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Yea, local people, we need to get a sanctioned competition closer.

If you ever come to the Eastern slope, I'd love to try some! I only have some very young, still-in-the-fermenter Flanders Red and Soured Dunkelweizen to offer though. I think I am going to split the Flanders Red and copy your method, but with apricots.

This is an awesome thread. It makes me wonder who those first very patient brewers were that discovered sour styles like Flanders Red, Oud Bruin, Lambics. I imagine they probably stumbled accross sour styles on accident, similar to what happened in this thread. I'm picturing the guys sitting around sampling a batch of ale they'd brewed and realizing something wasn't quite right. I bet all but one guy wanted to dump it but that one guy stuck with it until after a year or more when it finally developed into something absolutely incredible and unlike anything they'd ever tasted before.

Other way around. The original beers would have all been sour. Those styles you listed are actually truer descendants of thge oldest beer styles. Modern pure culture has only been around for a couple hundred years.

I've sent this brew off to some pro's, cant wait for January 12th to roll around, Also sent a belgian strong dark (fermented with my juniper yeast) and a saison. Wish I could attend but the cost is too much.
We shall see.

http://bigbeersfestival.com/

This placed third in the big beers festival in Vail (Belgian Specialty category (16E)), I'll post the scoresheets when I recieve them to conclude this thread, I can't wait to see the comments, I believe there has to be at least one certified judge at each table. http://bigbeersfestival.com/1images/2013BigBeersBelgiansBarleywinesWinners.pdf

This has been a great journey and I'm happy I still have a bunch of bottles left, whenever I wonder if it's all worth it or not I just go to the cellar and pop one of these for instant re-assurance.

Brew on my friends

Nice. Congrats.

Congratulations man! So much good can come from a "mistake"!

I had a random infection on a 5 gallon pumpkin ale that was in my basement (9/1/2012), and I checked HBT before I dumped it. My pellicle looks the same, and its been in primary for about 4 months now. When I taste it now, the sourness has taken over most of the nutmeg/cinnamin spice flavor, but the pumpkin still stands out on the back and.

Since it's pumpkin based, should I hit it with some more roasted mashed pumpkin to 'feed' it? Or should I just brew a few gallons of a light brown ale to mix with? Let it go and bottle it come June (for drinking in fall)? I'm not really sure where to go, and any opinions are welcomed!

This is awesome, the peeps at Avery donated some bombers of this golden ale to the winners of the festival and I recieved mine a few days ago.


It has a label on the bag of the participant and their winning entry, a nice touch I thought.


This beer is paying off. I forgot I haven't posted the scoresheets from the festival, I'll look for them and finish off this thread.